TLDR at bottom.
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First off, hey all - figured after reading through the posts and following DoF's development for the past couple of years I might as well pop in and start posting.

A lot of attention has been paid to the MMO function and the campaign, but I'd like to know a bit more about the skirmish mode. From what I've been able to get, the MMO side of things is understandably epic in scale and everything will certainly take its time. How is the scaling for skirmish being handled? 30 min-2 hour matches depending upon opponent numbers? If a dev could reply it'd be great.

And for my 2 cents... if it could be done, scaleable 'skirmish' along the lines of that MMO version but able to host (and then save, load, etc.) on a lan would seem ideal to add to the game. The scaleable elements could be time to build, time to train units, travel times, etc. The closest thing I can think of regarding the mode I'm describing here would be a real-time version of BfME 2's war of the ring mode - just... a bit more robust. Definable areas for play, number of human players, AI, etc. A sort of sandbox, I guess.

Why? I figure it would enable some of the more casual players to learn the ropes and get more comfortable with their friends via this means before going on to the MMO portion where competition is stiffer.
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TLDR:
How long do skirmish mode games last?
Will there be a mini-LAN-based campaign?
There should be ^.

hey merku welcome
I was the same as you.
Reading alot but just lately i popped out and start posting.

About your TLDR:
-How long do skirmish mode games last?
-Will there be a mini-LAN-based campaign?

First question is answered in this question
Q: How long does the average skirmish match take?
A: A two-wave medium difficulty skirmish match takes around 30 minutes for the average player.

For the 2nd question there is a campaign.
You can find your answer in this FAQ Question perhaps

Q: What are the available Victory Conditions?
A: There are three ways to play Kingdom Wars: the short campaign (Unification War), the long campaign (Realm War), and the epic campaign (Total War). In the short campaign, players start with one major town and their goal is to conquer the other three major towns of their race as well as 50% of their race's minor towns. In the long campaign, players start with one region - one capital town and two minor towns, and their goal is to conquer one of the other two races and to conquer all of their major and minor towns. In the epic campaign, players start with one region and their goal is to conquer every major town on the map for all three races, as well as 50% of all the minor towns.

Q: How long does the average skirmish match take?
A: A two-wave medium difficulty skirmish match takes around 30 minutes for the average player.

For the 2nd question there is a campaign.
You can find your answer in this FAQ Question perhaps

Q: What are the available Victory Conditions?
A: There are three ways to play Kingdom Wars: the short campaign (Unification War), the long campaign (Realm War), and the epic campaign (Total War). In the short campaign, players start with one major town and their goal is to conquer the other three major towns of their race as well as 50% of their race's minor towns. In the long campaign, players start with one region - one capital town and two minor towns, and their goal is to conquer one of the other two races and to conquer all of their major and minor towns. In the epic campaign, players start with one region and their goal is to conquer every major town on the map for all three races, as well as 50% of all the minor towns.

That answered the first question actually - but the 2nd needs a bit more refinement. Does this mode only encompass the MMO portion of the game? Is there LAN support for this (or really any sort of quickmatch type deal without the long-term commitment of the MMO component per match) mode?

Finally, is there a skirmish multiplayer mode? I don't recall seeing that in the FAQ. Watch, I'll hit post and then I'll stumble across the answer somewhere.

That answered the first question actually - but the 2nd needs a bit more refinement. Does this mode only encompass the MMO portion of the game? Is there LAN support for this (or really any sort of quickmatch type deal without the long-term commitment of the MMO component per match) mode?

Finally, is there a skirmish multiplayer mode? I don't recall seeing that in the FAQ. Watch, I'll hit post and then I'll stumble across the answer somewhere.

Merku

Yes there is a skirmish multiplayer mode up to 4 players atm. Maybe in the future 6

And sorry about that the answer of the second question.
The campaign i mentioned is for the singleplayer and not the MMO portion.Also i am not sure if the champaign can be played in multiplayer mode, I dont think so but a dev may need to answer that to be sure.